


Overdose

by ElizaStyx



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Addiction, Eerie, Falling In Love, First Kiss, First Meeting, Fluff, Hugs, Humour, Hurt/Comfort, I don't even know any more, Kisses, Longing, Love, M/M, Magic, Magical Energy, Missing, Power of Love, Present Tense, Running, Strange things, Trees, cuteness, energy, magical powers, magical tree powers, tree hugging, woods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-17
Updated: 2015-01-17
Packaged: 2018-03-07 23:37:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3187514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElizaStyx/pseuds/ElizaStyx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While on his usual running route through the forest, Dean meets a man with habits as eerie as his beautiful eyes. He knows that he should forget him and leave him be but he just can't. He has to keep coming back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Overdose

**Author's Note:**

> I swear I was sober when this idea came to my mind.

First time Dean meets him it's a big shock. He had run through that forest hundreds of times never meeting a living soul but now there he is - a dark-haired man hugging a tree. Dean stops immediately frozen to the spot because the sight is just so ridiculously strange and disquieting he has to rub his eyes.

"Hey, man..." he finally says, taking a step towards him. "You okay?"  
The man shifts a little and opens his eyes, his cheek still glued to the brownish bark.  
"Hmmm?" he humms and his eyes are unbelievably blue, just like those bits of the sky that are flashing between the leaves above them.  
"Are you alright?" Dean asks again, trapped by those irises.  
"I'm severely amazing." the man smiles in response and Dean is torn between being scared and intrigued.

The man's pupils are of normal size though and he doesn't smell of alcohol. Dean feels lost because that man is just so weird and yet this weirdness oddly fits him. He doesn't know what to say and expects everything to become very awkward very soon but the tree hugger closes his eyes and seems to be lost in his own world again.

Dean stares at him for a while and as nothing happens he whispers "Bye." and runs away.

***

It's still a surprise but not so much a shock to find this guy again, this time on the other side of the path but in the same spot. Dean stops again and looks at him, intrigued and just a tiny bit scared.  
"Hey." he greets him, inhaling deeply to even out his breathing.

The guy lazily lifts his eyelids and spots him. His everpresent small smile grows wider.  
"Hello." he says.  
And that's the whole talk they have.

Dean observes him for three more minutes, watching the steady movement of his back as he breathes slowly and steadily against the tree. He wants to ask him so many questions, he wants to understand this and he wants to know him.

He stays silent and in the silence he leaves.

***

Dean runs his usual route, expecting to meet the same intriguing man again as he did every day last week. His heart beats faster with every stride that brings him closer to the venue where they've always met. It beats faster every time he repeats the only piece of information he managed to get out of this man, his name.

_Castiel._

Dean tries not to think about his reactions, he doesn't want to accept them. He is afraid of his own anticipation and even more afraid when he feels his heart sink as he sees no sign of his bizzare friend in their usual place of meeting.

He stops on the empty path and takes a nervous look around, disappointed, worried, and sad. It's not like they were ever talking much but this time the silence is heavy and depressing because it's not shared.

Dean runs away quickly, wishing to leave it behind, having no reasons to feel so... betrayed. He is hurt though, he is ungratified and those feelings follow him home.

***

A week later Dean is wrecked. He feels as if someone had ripped out a huge part of him and left him to bleed out. He can't find a place for himself and finally he breaks his own promise - he goes for a run.

He goes for a run even though he wanted to stop visiting this forest, stop seeing that empty spot, and seeking the warm traces of Castiel on the trees he had touched.  
Dean was ashamed of doing that. Twice.  
The cortex was harsh underneath his fingertips as he was just brushing the surface. He didn't dare hug those trees. They were cold, he could almost feel them grieve and long for Castiel's touch and he knew it would be wrong to do this.

Now he is running again and he feels his heartbeat quicken as he keeps getting closer to the place he now knows too well. He takes one last turn and gasps in shock because **he** is there embracing an old hornbeam as if nothing happened, as if nothing changed.

Dean stares at him in silence until Castiel opens his eyes. They are also the same as they were before.

"Where have you been?" Dean asks silently. _I was worried._ almost follows but he bites his lip.  
"I've been close to overdosing." Castiel's voice is low and calming.  
"You were what?" Dean walks towards him unwittingly until they are so close he can feel a warm breath tickling his skin.  
"I've been close to overdosing." Castiel repeats. "I kept coming here too often and I had to take a break."

It's the closest to explaining anything he had ever been but it doesn't give Dean any answers. It doesn't explain why Dean was so worried and why he is so happy now.

"I don't think I get it..." he whispers, mesmerised by the striking blue of Castiel's irises.  
"It's simple." this statement means a lot more than that because suddenly Castiel's arms are no longer embracing the tree trunk but they slide around Dean's waist.

Dean lets those warm palms guide him towards the tree. He shivers a little when his own arms are being gently placed on the massive, twisted stem of the hornbeam. He feels the soft fingers slide along them from the shoulders to the palms where they choose to stay.  
"You have to let the tree embrace you." he feels the words rumble and resound in the trunk underneath his chest.  
And strangely enough he knows exactly what they mean.

He glues his cheek to the rough surface and closes his eyes. He feels Castiel's palms crawl up onto his forearms as he also hugs the tree tighter. Dean can only hear his fast heartbeat and hears it become more and more calm. The tree is warm against his skin and he knows it's mostly the heat of the man who was there before but it's also something more.  
Everything is so calming, the steady mainstay he can lean on, the silence between them and the firm grip on his forearms. He feels all his insecurities, all the worry and fear fade away, as if sucked in by the tree. He feels unbelievably at peace in this moment and he wishes to treasure this feeling.

"I want to stay like this for the rest of my life." he confesses silently and for a while he thinks that Castiel hasn't heard him but then the answer comes.  
"And that's why you need to let go now." Castiel sounds instrunctively and Dean doesn't like that.

He likes the sudden lack of the touch of Castiel's hands even less and then he's being pulled away from the tree to his growing confusion. He wants to go back into the calming embrace and to the harsh touch of the wood but then he find himself in Castiel's arms and it's even better so he gives in.

"Now you know what overdosing of trees' powers means." Dean hears Castiel's voice very close to his ear and he feels it vibrate in his own bones. "You wouldn't let go on your own. The power that trees have, their peculiar energy is dangerously addicting."  
And Dean gets it now because he would really stay there. He would give up on living an actual life for the illusion of safety and joy that the tree was giving him.

"Why do you risk using it then?" he hears himself ask.  
"For me it was always the only way to experience happiness." Castiel's breath tickles Dean's ear. "The only friend I've ever had showed it to me. Ironically he was the one to never return." and Dean feels for him, tightening his embrace.

"I know a safer way to happiness." he finally says and pulls back a little to meet the blue gaze.  
"Can you guide me then?" the question is sheepish and so is Castiel's smile.  
For the first time Dean sees the sadness behind it.  
"Yes." he nods, trying to hold back the tears as he sees the hope glistening in those beautiful eyes. "I've just found it myself."

Dean smiles as Castiel cocks his head, frowning and squinting a little.  
"It's simple." he adds and his smile softens. "It's right here."  
"Where?" confusion is clearly audible in his question as Castiel takes a curious look around.  
"Not in the forest." Dean says shyly. "In us."  
And then the blue eyes focus on him and the realisation brightens them up like a rising sun.

Castiel's scruff is almost as coarse as the bark but Dean likes it more. He likes the way it feels underneath his fingertips as he slowly cups the face of the man he is about to kiss. Castiel's lips are soft and warmer than Dean imagined. They slide smoothly against his own and they leave the traces of warmth on every freckle of his face. They aren't in hurry and they let him get drunk with every tiny brush until his head is spinning. He tightens his embrace and a pair of strong arms squeezes him in response, pressing their bodies together. He lets himself get lost in the devouring kisses and with an absolute clarity he feels the mysterious power of love, he feels how strong it is but it doesn't scare him.  
He knows he is truly safe.

"Can you promise me one thing?" he asks hopefully when they pull back to catch their breaths.  
"Of course." Castiel presses another kiss to Dean's forehead.  
"Promise me you won't ever make me let go of this." Dean holds his breath, waiting for Castiel's response.  
"I'm afraid that even if I wanted, I couldn't do that." his soft chuckle makes Dean shiver a little.  
"Is that so?" Dean is barely breathing.  
"Yes." Castiel's sigh sends a shiver down Dean's spine. "I'm pretty sure that I've just overdosed your _safe_  power and now there is only one thing I can do."  
"What thing?" Dean raises his brow, his heart beating faster as he's suddenly confused and afraid of rejection.  
"Taking my doses every day 'til the end of my life." Castiel answers and Dean recognizes the pure joy that's twinkling in his unearthly eyes.

He smiles. Their next kiss is soft.


End file.
